Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table
.
Policy scorecard
Winners
Losers
Cap and Trade for power and
some industries
Cap and Trade for transportation
Emissions fees
Renewable portfolio standards
Greenhouse gas reduction
standards
State mile per gallon standards
Federal mile per gallon
standards
Low carbon fuel standards
Demand side management
Long-term development funding
how to do things, only that they would be allowed to earn
more if they succeeded, and succeed they did. DSM
should be expanded to more places.
The result is interesting. California electricity costs are
high per kilowatt-hour, but the use of electricity is down
so that customers end up paying less in total. This is the
kind of thing California
s regulators should have done
instead of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, and I have
never understood why the state does not use its own
invention to decrease emissions from autos.
Table
'
is my scorecard for the policy options dis-
cussed here. It will surely displease some. Cap and Trade
works in some sectors of the economy and not in others.
Why the United States seems to be trying to use it in an
area where no one has been able to make it effective is a
mystery. Emissions fees work in all sectors. Greenhouse
gas reduction standards are preferable to renewable port-
folio standards. After all, what we are all trying to do is
reduce emissions and that should be done in the lowest
cost manner, not just by what some consider the greenest
.
